2021 Cloud Security Management and Best Practices

Cloud services are among the most significant developments of the 21st century and have become even more popular over the pandemic in 2020. Almost all large businesses and even governments have moved to cloud-based management systems. COVID-19 has increased the demand for this new and growing sector of industry.

The cloud, however, can be correlated with an increase in cyberattacks. Since the beginning of 2020, security breaches and cyberattacks have grown by almost 700 percent.

Security is one of the biggest obstacles for the cloud to overcome. Cloud services were responsible for over a quarter of all company security breaches in the past year. With the increase in the use of cloud services worldwide, the need for cloud security management has skyrocketed. In this post, we will look at a few different cloud security measures and how they help stabilize the use of cloud measures.

Compliance Checks

IT leaders deploy cloud services on national and international levels. The use of them as operative services requires them to be used and regulated according to local laws and security practices. Regulations and compliance are varied when it comes to industry, and the services that businesses use need to be balanced out by the required compliance checks. Rachel Evans, a tech blogger at Origin Writings and Brit Student, noted that “Compliance checks are essential for service industries such as finance and healthcare simply because of the need to secure customer data safety.” Even in industries where customer data protection is not at the forefront, businesses need to have their security policies to store necessary data. Compliance checks are crucial to cloud security.

Machine Learning

The majority of security breaches in our day and age mainly have to do with human mistakes. It is a well-known fact that over 90 percent of security and data protection breaches occur because of good old human error rather than actual machine systems failure. Machine learning can help with this and offer increased security for cloud management practices. Machine learning is still in the earlier stages of its development but is helpful when it comes to the following areas:

• Sensitive data classification
• Detection of security breaches & malware
• Security configuration
• Identity management & identity-related security practices
• Automation and security processes

Machine learning is most common in algorithms, where machines learn to understand patterns of human behavior.

Jesse Owens, a business writer at Write my X and 1 Day 2 write, explains that “Algorithms are put in place to allow machines to detect any unknown or unexpected activity. This may indicate a breach of protocol or systems issue has occurred.”

Machine learning can save significant time for security teams combing over potential data and reduces the risk of potential threats not being caught because of oversight or a lapse in human judgment.

Centralized Encryption Mechanics

It is very uncommon to see the use of one provider for cloud security services. In most circumstances, businesses have more than one security service, and these services overlap each other to fill gaps and ensure that the system is watertight to potential threats. Then, you can add encryption centrally to boost security on all platforms used.

Testing & Audits

The most significant and most crucial security step to remember is testing your business’s cloud services. The most effective way of testing security software is to simulate a break-in or have a testing company try to get into your systems using the processes and plans that criminals or hackers might use. This testing will enable you to see and understand the faults in your system to improve it.

Is the Cloud right for your business?

Cloud services have a great list of benefits: they help reduce costs, increase flexibility, and increase efficiency. However, despite these significant upsides, cloud security is a significant obstacle.

If you’re considering transitioning your business to cloud services, make sure you do your due diligence. Abide by compliance checks, test your system regularly, and use technology like machine learning to provide more protection. Questions? We’re happy to help.

About the Author:

Regina Wheeler is an online learning consultant and blogger for the Write my case study and Thesis writing service. She is constantly involved in different projects worldwide and loves challenging herself with new research topics. She also contributes her work and research skills to Next Coursework.